Happy New Year! ‘Sherlock’ Victorian special will air in the U.S. and U.K. on Jan. 1

Welcome back, gentlemen! BBC and PBS have finally announced the air date for the highly anticipated “Sherlock” special that transplants our favorite sociopathic sleuth and his sidekick to the Victorian era.

“Sherlock: The Abominable Bride,” a 90-minute special, will premiere on Jan. 1, 2016, marking the first time that the series has aired simultaneously in Britain and the U.S.

The American broadcast will air on PBS’ “Masterpiece Mystery” at 9 p.m. and will have an encore presentation on Jan. 10.

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The series’ titular star, Emmy-winner Benedict Cumberbatch, and costar Martin Freeman will return as Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Baker Street mystery solvers Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. However, the contemporary-set series will see them return to Doyle’s original 1890s London time period for a one-off episode.

A new trailer for the series showed the duo taking on their latest spooky mystery and quarreling over the detective’s iconic deerstalker cap in a very foggy London.

At the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in August, co-creator and writer Steven Moffatt (“Dr. Who”) wouldn’t divulge details about the special aside from saying that returning the characters to Victorian London was a relatively easy feat, if not “a mistake” they’ve been “a long time rectifying.”

“The main difference is ghost stories work better in the Victorian setting,” Moffat explained. “There are creepy and scary stories from the Doyle era and it’s easier to do a ghost story. Other than that it’s remarkably similar.”

The networks also announced that Season 4 of “Sherlock” will go into production in spring 2016. No air date has been determined yet.

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